Equal pay for equal work should be top concern for legislators

The fight for equality has moved from the lunch counter through wedding chapels and today is solidly situated in the workplace. Equal pay for equal work is not only right but also important for America’s families.

In Michigan, women make about 74 cents for every dollar a man makes. When a woman brings home the equivalent of a man, then the entire family can better save for retirement, put food on the table, pay for health care or buy a house.

Women for too long have been relegated to the back of the economic bus simply because Republicans in Congress won’t demand fair changes in the law.

This week is symbolic as it is when women finally have made as much money as men made last year. It takes more than 15 months for a woman to make what a man does in 12. And for women of color the disparity is even greater. That’s wrong for all women, wrong for our community and wrong for Congressional District.

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As the Mayor of Southfield my job is not only to run the city and keep it safe but also to create jobs so we have more opportunity, hope and prosperity. Every day I see so many struggling families, particularly female headed households, and those who are hurting simply because they have no one speaking for them in Washington.

In Congress I will work from day one demanding paycheck fairness. Women represent nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers — and full-time, year-round work at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour leaves a woman with two children thousands of dollars below the poverty line. No one working full time should live in poverty.

I’m running for Congress to ensure that daughters will have pay fairness and equality pay in the workplace.

Our community has a long and rich history of demanding equality and commanding respect by refusing to take no for an answer when only yes will make America the shining moral example it should be.

Equal pay for equal work is an economic and a moral concern. Paycheck fairness is not just fair but right, necessary and overdue.